Friday, January 22, 2010

Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Friday, January 22nd

Hello Dear Readers,

Sorry I missed yesterday. I was mostly out of town. Thursday and Friday Y La Bamba opened for The Builders and The Butchers in Salem and in Seattle. It was cool. I got to see my brother in Seattle. Other cool things seen in Seattle. I man run his motorcycle straight into a brick wall outside the Crocodile, Blue Giant, the members of Portugal The Man, Members of Hey Marsielles, and a old man singing doo wop with us outside of the Crocodile at almost two in the morning. I drove us back last night and got here are 5 am. I was pretty pooped and slept in I hope you forgive this late posting. Here are some shows that look good:

Friday, January 22nd

Elevated Coffee is having a show with Dr. Something and We Are Unreal (Oakland). My fellow blogger Dr. Something sans her band, The Pipin' Hot Love Engines. She plays guitar, accordion, clarinet, and contralto. But since she is playing solo tonight she will probably stick to the instruments that she can play while singing. So if you like song s about robots and such then you should check it out. Also I am not sure but the only We Are The Unreal that could find is a really cool MC (Vaguely like DOOM) from California. The ALL AGES show is FREE and starts at 7 PM.

The Knife Shop is having a show with We're From Japan!, Jatun, and Boomsnake (San Diego). Okay I just want to say that I really like We're From Japan! I think those guys are great. But I also want to say that I miss the hell out of former drummer Martin. The new guy is 'aight and a nice fellow, but lacks the persiscion that Martin had. Still their instrumental songs are beautiful and epic and will leave you satisfied. There are not too many "post-rock" bands in this town, you should celebrate the one we have. Jatun makes electo-shoegaze. I am not sure if that is a genre or not but it should be. I first came across it with M83. A whole lot of synths and programmed drums are mixed with some shoegaze guitar to create a feel that is usually dark and cinematic. Boomsnake is a band that lived in Portland for like two seconds. I bought their album and liked it a lot, but I never got to see them before they moved back to San Diego. They have a good sound they employs a singer that has a very pretty voice and wandering melodies that I really enjoy and often drums that are all tribal a la Animal Collective circa Sung Tungs. The show is $5 and starts at 10 PM.

Laughing Horse Books is having a show with Whale Warrior, Grandparents, Mama Sunshine, and Grey Anne. This is a show to try to earn money to buy sleeping bags for the homeless. All proceeds are guaranteed to go toward that cause. There are many ways you can help out, you can read all about the goals here. As for the music, it is a mixed bag. Whale Warrior is the new band of my friend Tex Winters. His voice and music are quirky to say the least. But there is something about his songs that I really like (a child like quality maybe?). He textures a lot of his songs with a lot of samples and such. Mama Sunshine is the band of my friend Eliot King. I have not seen them play but I used to see Eliot play solo and he was always pretty good with his compositions. Grey Anne is really good her songs are very deliberate and good and she actually performs as opposed to just playing her music. I is always a good thing to check into Anne's world. The ALL AGES show is a sliding scale of $2-$5 and starts at 8 PM.

WonderBallroom is having a special repeat performance of The Oregon Ballet and Horse Feathers. A couple months ago these two teamed up to perform at Mississippi Studios. The band kind of hid and let the dancers interpret the songs in modern ballet. It was quite incredible. I never would have seen these dancers perform other wise. It is a neat concept to bring these two worlds together. But honestly it makes perfect sense. Beautiful music with beautiful dancers. If you missed out before this is your second chance. The show is $15 and starts at 9 PM.

The Woods is having a show with Hey Marsielles and Sallie Ford and The Sound Outside. Hey Marseilles is a Seattle band that I keep hearing about. I have met a few of the members and they seem like really nice dudes. I have listened to their myspace and was really impressed in what they have to offer. They are orchestrated. I mean they have stings, trumpet and piano and accordion in addition to the regular rock line up of guitar, bass and drums. It actually kind of reminds me of the late Some by Sea. I like it a lot. Their sound is big and seems positive. I guess it is feel good music. Sallie Ford is amazing. I don't know how many times I need to tell you, but you need to see her if you have not already. Her Billie Holiday like voice mixed with her throw back pop music is truly special and is just great. This is an excellent show. There is an $8 cover and the show starts at 9 PM.

If you see someone who looks like me at one of these shows please say, "Hi". Hopefully it is me.

-Ben

This is what I saw before when Horse Feathers played for ballerinas. Pretty cool, right?

Also, they brought along some Portland friends to play some songs with them. They're SoCal transplants living in Portland, but called The Oakland Birds. A little confusing, but they had intense, beautiful songs with two part vocal harmonies accompanied by banjo and ukulele.

And they agreed to play with me this Wed at Roadside Attraction! Everyone should check it out.